Fascinatingly, Buckingham's place on the tour will be taken by a pair of heavy-hitting ringers: Mike Campbell from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Neil Finn of Crowded House and Split Enz.

I don't know what to make of this. Normally when something like this happens, the parties involved try to smooth over the news a little ("decided to part ways," "wish each other well in their future endeavors," etc.); it's almost always bullshit, but at least they try to make a show of it. No such euphemism here - word started to leak that the guy who's essentially been the architect of the band's entire sound for the last 40-plus years had been tossed out, and the band's camp didn't waste any time confirming that, yep, that's what happened.

Jirin wrote:In the past they've always used their hate for each other to make great art, what has changed lately?

Right. We're talking about a band that followed up its biggest album ever - one of THE biggest albums ever - with an album that was allegedly titled by one member after another member's pet name for his...member. At a time when member #2 was sleeping with the ex-girlfriend of member #1. Who of course is also in the band. Not to mention all the drugs. Have you ever seen photos of the band from that era? They all look like they have about four seconds to live.